7

Author's Note:

A bit sloppy, but I'm moving right now so this will be the last update for a couple of weeks at most.

Addendum: So, bad news (for me.). The (Less than) and (Greater than) signs I was using for internal dialogue apparently don't copy over from the .odt file to the document. So, all the internal dialogue is all messed up.

Going to need to add them all back in manually. Sorry for those that tried to read this and got a bit confused.

Addendum: Even added in manually they get stripped out on save. So, find something else to take their place.

A devlog now:

{} Let's try this.

Oh, that works, does it? Why, how generous of you, FFNet.

Oh, and apparently I can't have even the simplest of URL's in here either.

Well, there goes all my experimental ideas on different fonts and font sizes, embedded images and other stuff. If I want to do that, I might as well make my own website. Maybe for my original works.

Partial Maiden Yuki Tenno

The Schnees are next.

Qrow has finally stopped hugging his girls, but he is still crying a bit. His life just changed. I wonder how much he pulled himself back from them, wanting to be part of their lives. Not to mention all the guilt he has built over the years. Qrow blames himself. For everything. Not anymore.

Hope, that one day, he can be with anyone. It's like Clover, but so much more.

Clover. He told me how to do this, by dying, by Qrow's 'good luck' during the final chapters of Volume 8.

Some think that his Semblance evolved, but there is a far more accurate and sad explanation. The reason 'good things happen' is because surviving with the guilt over Clover's death is the worse option. That deep down, dying is preferable.

I stand up and pull the white haired elegant duo away, let him have his space.

"Nothing so dramatically life changing for you two, just a couple of ideas to throw around." Weiss looks disappointed. Pffft. "Right, I need a Glyph about waist level, aligned edge up. Thank you Winter."

I call up a soft (limestone) rock with my magic and hold it over the edge. Drop it.

Two half rocks fall and hit the ground. Damm, that is sharp. Winter exhales slowly while Weis- "Oh Come On!"

I cackle at her exasperation before we do some more tests.

Weiss and Winter flick up a Glyph and I throw rocks at it, a lot of different kinds of rocks. Ah, it seems the stronger a material is, the more Aura she has to spend to keep it sharp. So, they aren't 2d, but they are flat and sharp. Very sharp.

"Right. Enough Rocks. Time for your Paradigm Shift." I'm taking that name, thank you very much. "Recall the story of a runaway heiress and the lancers." AKA, the OT. "Now, understand that she was standing on a cargo ship. A moving cargoship. Relative to her, the Glyphs stood still. Yet, she can also at leave them fixed to the ground. Weiss, if you could hold your scroll on your weapon, camera facing down the blade, and I will attach it with a bit of ice."

Camera glued on. "Now set to record a video then give it a bit of wave. Slow then faster then slow. Turn and twist, and done. Now turn it off and watch it." Weiss sends a copy to Winter. "What I want you to do is set your anchor point for the Glyph to be on the end of your weapons, so that as it moves the glyph does too."

They try. And fail. "Try thinking of it as the weapon being still and the world moving. Look at the video again, get a feel for what the weapon's perspective might be."

Weiss and Winter watch the 'go pro helmet camera' footage as Myrtenaster 'stays still' and 'the world flows around it'. We make another couple of videos, these ones much slower to sell the effect and one for each weapon.

"Right, I'm off to break someone else's mind while you two do that. Can I have the video of the others please?" Weiss frowns and sends me the video of everyone using their Semblances. "I might be easier to summon up a couple of mounts and ride them around, calling up Glyphs with world and self anchors. Get a feel for the difference."

I glance at Qrow, Ruby is fussing over his weapon. Ha, the only reason it malfunctioned is because he looked at it. Really looked. When was the last time he actually even thought about his weapon? That is, not as an extension of himself. It is so integrated into his identity I wouldn't be surprised if his Aura actually healed it.

Uh oh. Ruby is glaring at me. Oops. I did break 'Qrow's baby'. That actually Qrow broke it, well. That wouldn't fly with Ruby.

"Hello." Blake.

"How goes the clones?" It's been half an hour at most. No, about 40 minutes. Not long enough for a breakthrough with Blake.

"Difficult." I sigh and squint. "They last a few seconds at most."

"Been timing them?" A nod. "Okay. Well, let's break it down into smaller sub parts. One, persistence. The clone needs either to persist for an extended period of time, or to be constantly flickering in and out of existence. Two, impulse. The force applied to your body when you use a clone to jump can be applied in any direction."

Take a breath, invent a test. "So, I want you to jump without using your legs. Stand still, pop a clone, and use it's impulse to push you upwards." She nods.

And wow, that is weird to look at. Like there are two of her before that one fades. Blake lands. "I've been doing this for a long time already." I nod, that makes sense for Monty's style. "Mostly to enchants my strikes."

"Hmm, Monty then. But can you do it slowly?" Her uncovered ears convey confusion. "Well, you can adjust how much 'push' you get from each usage, but can you make the 'push' longer? Not a burst of speed, but a constant thrust over a short period of time."

"I'll try." She blinks and concentrates. A jump and a land. A jump and a land. This isn't working.

A few more cycles and nothing. "Okay, another approach. How do you know or pick which direction the impulse comes from?"

"I just do. It's a Semblance."

"Right. Semblance. Half instinctual half practice." She smirks at my half defeated tone. Bloody soul magic. "Okay, how about a curved jump? Not diagonal, but an arc."

"Yes?" Jaune comes over, having heard his name. Everyone has been calling for him to practice his Semblance on.

"The shape, Jaune, not the family." I giggle.

"Right." He goes away, a little embarrassed.

Blake nods and picks a direction. She jumps without moving and leaps diagonally. Lands. Frowns. "I think..."

She jumps without moving upwards and then drifts sideways. Importantly, she accelerates sideways, not just two pulses of force. Blake lands off center. I smile. "You got it. Now, a curve is a continuous application of force over time. Either two of them, the initial push from jumping and a second one constantly pushing you to the side. Or one, which is a constantly shifting vector, a direction, that is accelerating you in a different path."

Blake nods and jumps again, this time arcing the other way. "So, why do you want me practising this?"

"Free form impulse thrust. Or, total freedom." There's that shift in her perception. How much is a Semblance something that is rooted in trauma? Qrow's Misfortune, Blake's 'running away' Semblance? Or is it the other way around, where they end up forming association with their Semblances and think of them as bad.

I generate a chunk of ice and hold it in the air with Magic telekinesis. "What you haven't noticed, but I have, is that every time you used your Semblance, you cancel your inertia." I move my visual aid suddenly to right, generating a frosted air outline to show the 'clone'. Then I drop it straight down, the ice 'popping another clone' and moving at 90 degrees to it's previous trajectory.

Good thing the ice ball is so small, I can't cancel inertia. "You immediately and suddenly accelerate in another direction."

I move the ice ball around in sudden fast jerking movements, impossible movements, with no regard for momentum. And I watch, as Blake realises she could move like that. "Flight."

"More than flight, Blake. Pyrrha flies by pulling herself, but you? You are free of gravity and momentum. At any moment, at any time, you can be going wherever you want. Total Freedom of movement." It looks jank, broken, like a bug in a videogame. Which is what it is, I suppose. Exploiting the momentum cancelling and sudden movement. Just like a game with a physics breaking bug.

I smirk as the idea settles, as Blake jumps and moves mid air again, this time smoother. Faster. Sleeker. Not.

It looks fucking awful. Like Garry's Mod, someone grabbed her and is throwing her around mid air. She lands and I narrow my eyes. "Easier?"

"Yes."

"Why?" Come on, give me the data. I know there's another, deeper, reason than practice.

"It feels different. Like I'm."

"Not running away anymore." I say it and Blake half controls her flinch. "I know you, as deep of a privacy violation that is. That ease you feel, I suspect it's your soul, your Semblance, changing. Evolving. Not suddenly, like with a breakdown, but gradually. There's a feeling in you, that all you do is run away. Something Adam made clear, or would have." I frown, when in his character development is that? "But it's not running anymore, is it?"

"No." There she is, the Blake that chose to stay. "Yang and I..."

I didn't get that. Repeat the words, the way she says them, in my head and read the emotional again. Ah. "Sorry for walking in on your meeting." She was with her when I tried to help Yang. Idiot, didn't even realise that. "As for 'destiny', don't worry about it. I've changed things, simply by being here. Your choices are you own, whatever they are."

She nods. "So. You're a boy?"

An attack on me? A change in topic. "I'm a machine. Didn't get a chance to explore who I was."

She raises an eyebrow as if to say 'really?'. Yes, I'm a machine. I sigh. "I suppose that doesn't come across with my frequent mental and emotional breakdowns the past couple of days. It's something I need to run an analysis on, probably later tonight before bed. I'm putting it off."

How much of me is me is machine is me? How much difference does a 'soul' make? How much is it just plain biochemical depression that I no longer have, being in a new body?

Later. "Anything else, or can I head to Nora and try teach her to throw lightning?"

She narrows her eyes. "You think that's a good idea?" So, yes, but not now.

Wait. Her deflection. "Um. Yes?" I blink and think. "I've never really thought about the potential hazards of giving Nora lightning powers." I grin. "Don't worry, Pyrrha will be controlling lightning too, so she can keep her in line." Wait. "Is Pyrrha trustworthy?"

Blake looks up and over my shoulder and I turn around to watch Pyrrha flying around, bumping into things. Oh, that is awkward to look at, 'The Invincible Girl' failing so badly at something. "Maybe your should teach Pyrrha first, before Nora."

"Yeah. I think your right. I need some lightning Dust tho- Idiot. I have magic." I slap myself. Lightning Dust. Magic. Keep a mental list of my new capabilities, please. "You good to practice? Know what you're doing?"

"I'll work it out." Blake jumps and shifts left then right mid rise.

Ruby and Yang have started practising... With Qrow. The deck of cards is out and he is trying to win. I generate a bunch of stone poker chips as I walk by. "Go on, cool Uncle. Teach Ruby poker."

He grins at me. "What makes you think I haven't already?" Hahaha.

"Pyrrha, ground yourself please." Nora 'awwws' in the background. She lands. "How do you feel?"

Oh, look at that smile. "Wonderful. Thank you."

I roll my eyes. "Everyone around me is an idiot. I point out the most simple of alternative perspectives and what do I get? Thanks and praise. Right, I said I would teach you lightning if you got good, but Blake pointed out it might be better if you knew how to control it before I help Nora learn how to throw it."

"Awww!" Nora whines again.

"For safety reasons, you understand." She giggles before straightening up. Oh, respect? I'm a teacher now, I guess. "Let's sit down, there is some theory to go over first. And no listening Nora! This might prevent your progress!"

"Fine!" She huffs and walks off.

We sit on one of the benches and I start. "You can polarise objects, control magnetism. So far, you've been doing that on metal, but the truth of the universe is that almost all objects have an electromagnetic charge."

I call up ice again (It melts so clean-up is as easy as leaving puddles rather than a bunch of rocks around) and create a simple model of an atom. "This is a simple model of an atom. Specifically, Hydrogen, or more specifically Deuterium. Most conventional matter, I am leaving out Dust because I don't understand it, is made of these three sub atomic particles in different numbers and formations."

"The Electron, on the outside, which is negatively charged. The Proton, in the center mass called the nucleus, which has a positive charge. And finally the Neutron, which has a neutral charge." Pyrrha nods.

My voice turns grave. "Now, before we go any further, I want you to swear to never try separate, divide, tamper or even touch the nucleus. Ever. For any reason."

"Why?"

"Because doing so could kill all life on the planet." Her eyes widen. It's an over-exaggeration, except it's not. If there is even the smallest chance she can preform nuclear fission, then there is a small chance she might try mess with a heavy element's nucleus, and that small chance might start a chain reaction.

Remnant does not need nuclear weapons. Especially in the hands of barely adult women who are fighting monsters and might decide in desperation that they need a bit more punch.

Remnant's lack of science has saved it from total destruction so far, but that can only last so long.

"I swear." I stare are Pyrrha as she swears.

"Again. In full."

"I swear I will not tamper, touch or in any way interact with the nucleus of an atom." Solemn. Understanding. Even if she doesn't understand the mechanics of how it would kill all life, she trusts me to be telling the truth.

I nod. "Then I am trusting you with this. It thankfully isn't easy, but you must know the risk if you are to interact at this level. I won't explain how it will, the more you know the easier it would become. Just... Don't. Okay?"

"I won't." That's going to have to be good enough. "You know how to end all life on the planet?"

"Yes. Several ways. Moving on." She nods. Best don't think about it.

I pull the 'electron' off the model of the atom. "This is plasma, or what you think of as lightning. It is a state of matter not like Solid, Liquid or Gas, one where the electrons are free from the nuclei of the atoms. Normally this only occurs at relatively high energies, such as high voltages or strong magnetic fields." There we go. Strong magnetic fields.

"Now, Hydrogen by itself, especially Deuterium, isn't very common. It tends to react." I boil away the atom and generate another model.

Oxygen. The nucleus is a single sphere now, to help build a mental model of 'do not touch, don't even think of them as clusters of subatomic particles'. "This is a single Oxygen atom. Atoms have preferences of how many electrons they want to have. In this case, Oxygen wants to have 2 electrons in it's inner shell, it's close layer, and 8 on it's outer layer. However, Oxygen only has a pull, a positive charge, or 8, not 10, so it can only really maintain 6 on it's outer layer."

"The greater the pull strength, the more electrons they can have. Okay." Pyrrha nods. Strength, I suppose that works.

"Yes. But that said, it still wants an outer shell of 8. So, if we introduce two hydrogen atoms." I generate them. "They both have one electron, so they get half pulled in and react, creating" I simulate a chemical reaction of the electrons flying around, the molecule forming the classic upside down V shape. "a single molecule that stays together, bound by mutual shared charge."

I pronounce each prefix clearly for her. "This is Di-Hydrogen Mon-Oxide." I grin. "Also known as water." I'm showing off water using water. Ha. "Made up of?"

"Negatively and positively charged components. You want me to pull them apart." She back pedals. "The electrons from the nuclei, not the nuclei themselves."

"Exactly. Metals, stone, the air around us, it's all the same laws. The same three sub atomic particles, just in different numbers and arrangements." I create a swarm of mini 'water' molecules. "These are tiny, the finest grain of sand contains more than trillions of atoms, a ridiculous number. So, you won't be able to manually grab the electrons and pull them for much effect."

I evaporate the ice and create a little stone bowl before filling it with water. "Instead, try imagine two fluids, one positively charged, the other negative. Start with water, if only because I have used than as an example."

Pyrrha nods and attempts to apply polarity to the swarm of atoms. "Or, we could try another direction." I call up a ball of lightning in my hand and hold it. "This is already separated. Steal the electrons from me."

Pyrrha changes her focus and concentrates.

The lightning glows black and I release the electrons from my magical grip.

A bolt of lightning flies out for the orb at Pyrrha. Thankfully It's tiny, and she has Aura, or that would have hurt rather than the big static shock she got before.

She does yelp though, which causes the lightning to jump back into my hand. Without either of us gripping the electrons, they react with the held nuclei and a whoosh of heat is felt as the lightning becomes air.

"Ah!" That does surprise me. Idiot, of course it reacted without the magic telling it that it's lightning. Stupid magic.

We giggle at our shared shock for a moment. Jaune comes over. "Hey Jaune." She smiles at her boyfriend... They are dating, right?

"Are you okay? I heard-" I giggle again.

"I'm fine, Jaune. It was just a little unexpected." I call up lightning again and let Pyrrha pull on it.

She does not let go of it when she pulls the electrons off. I smirk. "You are going to have to learn to pull the nuclei away from the electrons, but so long as you don't try to tamper with them you'll be fine." She nods.

My warning is heeded. Good.

I let go of the nuclei and they fly towards the strongest negative charge around, which is the pool of held electron's in Pyrrha's grip. Uhhg. That looks weird. The strong positive pull is yanking electrons from the surrounding gas, creating a kind of outwards lightning bloom before it slams into the electron pool, suddenly equalising.

I stand up. "Have fun, be safe. Oh, and try not to shock yourself. I'm off to teach Nora how to throw lightning, you best get good enough to catch it."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Jaune asks.

I wanna do it! Im'ma do it! "What's the worst that can a happen?"

"HAAHAHAHAAA!" Nora converts Aura to lightning to throwing lightning as she cackles, waves of power rippling off her as she throws them at us. She could already direct it down her weapon, and with my suggestion, through the ground.

Pointing out that the air is a thing that she could pump it down, well. Now she is able to toss pink lightning bolts.

I leap to the side, eyes tracking her hands and trying to predict her throws. "FLEE!"

Another bolt... right abo-OWW!

I hit the ground as she laughs maniacally, Blake's 'I told you so' expression mocking me. "Shut up." I mutter, only for that expression to change to a 'I didn't say anything.'

"Jaune, My faithful servant! Your queen needs more POWER!" Oh no. She's going full Sidious.

I roll over, and point my fingers at her. Two can play at that game. Lightning comes to my hands and I spew a constant stream out of my fingers at her.

Nora simply raises her hand and catches it, my yellow magic lightning turning pink in her grip. "You fool! Trying to use my own power against me?"

It's just sitting there, in her palm, ready to be thrown back at me. How clever is Nora? She shouldn't be adapting this fast. "Now you will suffer for your foolishness!"

"Pyrrha! Catch it!" I call out in 'despair'.

Pink lightning flows down in slow motion, only to meet a dark glow and to stop mid air. Victory. Hmm, that glow isn't as pronounced as it is in the show. Highlighted for the viewers sake? Probably how she managed to keep it hidden all of this time. That and infrequent and subtle use.

"Traitor!" Nora calls out.

Haha. I get up fully. "Right. Nora, you're done." I look to Ren, who shakes.

Nothing there, I suppose. He would rather push his Semblance into something else than find a trick to using it. Or he doesn't trust me. That's fine.

I walk over to Ruby pouting as she throws down her cards. "Who's losing the most?"

The poker game is going very well, for Qrow.

"I am." Yang huffs and puts down her cards. She gets up. "What have you got for me?"

"I have a couple of ideas." I smirk. "Got Aura? Going to need to charge your Semblance." She nods and we walk away.

Yang rolls her shoulders and punches her fist, though I notice her glance down at the red line around her arm. It's not as raw as it once was, but is still a harsh colour against her skin.

I pull out the my phone again... My scroll again and pull up the video of her using her Semblance that Weiss took for me. Hmm. Interesting. Cold damage, from the environment, seems to change Burn. Which means that the thing that actually charges her Semblance isn't some kinetic energy absorption or release, but something closer to the 'idea' of damage. Or maybe it's her Aura depleting. More tests will be required, but that comes later.

We begin. First, some questions. She can vary her output from her stored damage, good. Having trouble with triggering Burn from points on her body that aren't actively attacking. Hmm, okay. We'll work on that then.

I charge her Semblance with a few whacks. "This revenge for before?" She teases.

I snort. "I knew full well what I was getting into. I just needed to know how screwed I am."

A disc of Ice appears! I mentally roll my eyes at the internal monologue's decaying state, pushing back how unstable and strange I am now. Later, work on that later.

"Right, place a finger against the disc please." Yang pokes the disc and holds it. "Now trigger Burn with enough force to shatter it."

"Um, I'm not attacking." It needs to be an attack? Bullshit.

"Yes you are. Trick yourself." She just looks at me like I'm an idiot.

"Not everyone can just trick themselves, Yuki." Right.

"Oh. Um. You are attacking it with the heat of your body, melting it. Heat is vibrations, unordered ones, but kinetic energy all the same. Some of that kinetic energy will be slamming into the ice, melting it. Or, you could Burn that attack?"

Yang frowns. "It's not even a lie, that's just how the universe works."

"Yeah, I'm just trying to..." Deeper her frown gets. The disc remains unshattered.

"Alright. I'll pull it back a centimetre and you can poke it explosively." I pull it back.

"A centimetre?" Oh right. Remnant uses Imperial.

"Um, measurement system. A fraction of an inch. Poke the disc please." She pokes it and it explodes. Oh, and she grins.

"Ex-poke-sive." I close my eyes and breathe deeply. "Eh?" Let is pass.

"Yes yes, very punny." I call up another disc. "Again please." This one is slightly closer.

Poke. Boom. Another. Closer.

We repeat the process a few times before I have to whack her again and then start again. Soon it's a millimetre away. Then the same. Then slightly closer. "I'm touching it."

I lean close and examine the gap. "No, you're not. It's the cold, I think." It explodes in my face. "Hey!"

"Opps." Fine. Be like that.

Again and again, and slowly I close the gap, taking more and more time to examine it. A few more whacks.

"Does this count as hitting on you?" That gets a snort.

"Depends. Am I allowed to hit on you back?"

"No then." I defend myself.

"Pussy." How much of that is her, how much of it is fake? Hard to tell. "How close are we?"

"Sub millimetre, which means nothing to you. Not touching yet though." This one isn't, but the next one will be. The cold, and numb from it, will serve me well.

Shatter. Form. Line up. It's faintly brushing against her skin. Shatter. I make sure not to smile. The first few jumped a millimetre each, but every one closer to the skin covers less and less distance, which is now touching. Tricking her into thinking I'm -shatter- just getting really really close.

Well, zero is pretty close. Shatter. One more, then I'll tell her. "Okay, that one is touching." Ah, caught.

"Can you do it?" Yang tries to shatter the plate, with no effect. She drops her arm in a huff and shakes her head. "Liar. The last three were touching."

"No, they weren't." I grin at her. "You... You tricked me." Smug smug. "Now I know how Uncle Qrow feels."

"It's all in your head, Yang. That's why I'm calling it a Paradigm Shift, the root of it is in just how you think about it." I shake the plate. "Come on."

She pokes the plate of ice and then closes her eyes.

One second.

Two.

Three.

Four? Aww. I thought for sure the arc number would come into play.

"I've done it already. Attack the ice." She's whispering to her self. "Burn. Feel it, and-" the disc shatters. Yang grins. "Shatter it."

I call up another disc and command her. "Again."

She pokes it. Waits, then focuses. It shatters in 3 seconds. Another, 1 and half. Another, another, another, another, another. Each disc shatters slightly faster. "So, what's the next step?"

"Fist please." She curls her hand into a fist. I place the disc on her knuckles. "Shat- thank you. Open hand, palm down please." I call up another disc and place it on her knuckles again. "Shatter."

A frown, a moment's though, and then it shatters too. I call up another disc and place it slightly away from knuckle. "Oh, I get it."

We move up her arm slowly as she learns to project Burn out of her body. Faster and faster she picks it up as it becomes less 'attack from arms' and more 'trigger anywhere on my body'.

Yang runs out of Burn. "Right then, next step. I'm going to throw a bit of ice at you, hard enough to drain some Aura. I want you to immediately trigger Burn where it hits."

Her eyes widen. "You want me to use my Semblance as armor."

"I estimate a 50% reduction in damage, but that's only because I have no idea what the damage to Burn ratio is." I call up a rod of ice. "Ready? I'll target your fists at first."

Yang nods, suddenly her mood has shifted. Armor, to defend herself. I suppose this particular Paradigm Shift resonates with her recent trauma. I just looked for the possibilities and exploit them.

"Hit me." I throw the ice rod at her fist. It shatters on impact, but not the kind of shatter we want. "Again." Yang starts calling out shots as I throw the ice rods at her.

The hits aren't working, not at first. One or twice explode in the flames of her Semblance, and each one over-detonating with the stored Burn. She will need to work on her control later, see if she can use both armor and selectively siphon off Burn into a backup reserve.

Again and again I throw and Yang reacts more and more effectively, her Semblance and Aura becoming reactive armor. On her fist anyway. I stop. "Right, before you work into any bad habits, I want you to do it with your eye's closed. To feel the damage and trigger without relying on your eyes. Otherwise your back will be undefended."

"Gotcha." Yang closes her eyes. "Shoot."

I fire.

Yang stopped calling shots a while ago, I have been throwing rods in random patterns to test it. And moving slowly around her arm, firing not at her fist but at different targets.

Her armor grows. "Right, we best call it at that. I need to teach Ruby her Paradigm Shift after all."

Yang opens her eyes and looks at the mess of ice shards around us. "Ha. We made a bit of mess."

I wave my hand an evaporate it. "This is why I chose ice. The room might have clean-up for Dust usage, but this is much easier."

"Show off." She looks at her hand. "Thanks."

"Of course. Oh, and it's not the only thing I have for you. Though that might take a lot more testing and all sorts of boring experiments. Now, I'm off to make Ruby untouchable."

"Finally!" I jump at Ruby's voice behind me.

"EEEPPP!" Yang and Ruby, Qrow. Oh wow, everyone is laughing at me. "Shutup! I was concentrating!"

A minute later and I'm with Ruby. She's grinning as if nothing is wrong. How much of that is real, how much of it is fake? I don't know, this Ruby hasn't lost anyone. Well, she has seen Penny die, but I think she trusts me enough to know that Penny will be fine.

She didn't watch Pyrrha die in front of her either. Nor has Beacon fallen. Nor is she broken by the idea of an unwinnable war, or trying to carry the whole group on her back. "You're frowning at me."

Oh. So I am. My external expression control is failing. "Sorry, just thinking." Back on task. I pull out the scroll, my scroll, again and watch the video of Ruby forming and un-forming in slow motion.

And now I am smiling. Good. "So, can you stay still in Petal Burst?"

"It's really hard, I've been trying to vibrate like you said but..."

"It's fine, but later that might be more important. So, first of all, I want you to understand a couple of things. One, you can carry people and objects with you and drop them out of Petal Burst, even while you personally stay in it. Like the fight with the Corovin." That is her name, right?

She nods. "Okay."

"Also, you can break up and reform into multiple 'bits'. Importantly, you are not a single object when using your Semblance. So, what we are going to do is have you move from point to point, and I'll shoot ice spikes at you. I want you to let them pass through you."

She frowns. "I don't think I can do that."

"I know you can. It's all in your head, stop thinking of yourself as using super speed, and start thinking of yourself as a cloud. A swarm of petals, if you will." Ruby nods.

Back and forth she flows, ice rods flying and hitting her. At first.

Like the others, it doesn't take her that long to adapt, something that is bothering me more and more. These aren't simple hacks, well. They are, but it took years, two years, before any of them began to display anything like this in Canon.

Then again, the trigger for them was Atlas. Or at least Penny 'explaining' Ruby's Semblance to her. Ha, as if she has zero mass. If she did, then she would be moving at lightspeed. Or Aura bullshit.

That doesn't explain everyone else. A rod passes through Ruby's Semblance form. Too fast. Far too fast.

Semblances evolve during emotional triggers, right? And sure, these aren't technically evolutions but unique ways of using them, but it's been almost 2 hours and I have pushed most of teams RWBY and JNPR to entirely new levels.

Far too fast. What the hell is going on? I need a theory and then do some tests it. "Okay Ruby."

She stops and comes back. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing bad, I'm just confused about yours, and everyone's... How fast you are picking up what I'm trying to teach you." I shake. "Next step."

I scroll back the video of Ruby on my scroll and play her forming and un-forming in slow-motion. "See here, you do not 'convert' into petals all at once. What I want you to do is pull out Crescent Rose, and mid flight, reform her, just her, before the rest of you."

"Why?" Oh, now she asks questions. Silver Eyes? Nope. Ozma's messed up plan? Only at the breaking point.

"Because I think you can form and un-form her while keeping the squishy bits of you in your Semblance, giving you-" Her eyes widen. "Yeah. Faster. Safer. Oh, and very manoeuvrable."

I smirk. "Plus, if you get good enough with it, you can un-form Crescent Rose at the end of your swing and immediately reform it elsewhere for another attack or whatever. You don't have 'arms and legs, head and blade' when you're in Petal Burst anyway."

One more thing, a warning. "Ruby, I want to make clear. If you get this, you won't be indestructible. Area attacks, like from explosions or fire" Cinder. "Will hurt you, maybe more than usual because of your increased surface area. Please, stay safe."

Ruby nods and rushes off. Only to stop and call Jaune over. She's running out of Aura, Jaune is too. At least he's getting good using his Semblance.

I walk over to the bench where Qrow is playing cards with himself and sit down. "What's up?"

He noticed my bad mood. "Too fast. Too quick. Everyone, including you, are picking what I'm trying to do far far too quickly."

"Maybe your just a good teacher?" I snort.

"Unlikely." Which brings up another notes. "How do you understand what I'm saying?"

"Well, I have these two holes in my head- You're serious?" Qrow glances up and then puts his cards down.

My frown hasn't left. "I have always had communication issues. Since I've come here, idea's have been getting across far more clearly that I expected. Now, either Amber is helping me out, or something else is happening."

Is Amber neurotypical? Am I co-opting her language centres and social skills? Or is is something like Aura, bullshit soul magic in play again?

"Not really something I can help out with. I mean, are we even speaking the same language, or are you making horse noises in your head?" Teasing tone hiding something-something-'I'm sorry I can't help'.

"Pony." I absent-mindedly correct. "And attempting to understand language is an entire philosophical quandary I've attempted to crack. There is just no way to know. Well, maybe with Semblances and Soul magic, but I'm not going to try mess with that to solve the illusion of language."

I click my tongue at stare at Pyrrha and Nora throwing lightning back and forth between them. Qrow speaks. "You've put a lot of thought into philosophy, huh?"

"Had to. I have to invent science and philosophy from age 5-6 to try and logically analyse how psychology works. Reinventing the wheel, sure, but I didn't exactly have a choice." I snort. "I've been though almost every existential crisis I have heard of before I heard of most of them. I wonder how a normal person would react to waking up here." A moment's analysis. "Oh, they would be in denial still, probabilisitacally."

"Not you?" Yang and Weiss are sparring, of sorts. Glyphs glow along her blade only to shatter with an explosion as they hit Yang's reactive armor.

"I've run the data. This is either a very good simulation, or something worse." Ruby is tripping over her manifested feet while the rest of her enters Petal Burst, only to fall out of it as her Semblance refuses to tear herself apart.

Qrow passes me a hand, he has changed the game to something we can both play. "One moment, I need to push the Schnees to the next level. Be back soon. Too soon."

A signal and I'm still frowning when the two sisters walk over. "Is something wrong?"

"People keep asking me that. Yes, I know I'm frowning, but nothing bad. Just a bit confused. Anyway," I generate an ice sphere, small. "you're next step, before you settle too much into the existing habits."

"All of us are low on Aura." Winter explains.

I nod. "That's fine. You're next step is to generate a Glyph, anchored on small, moving targets. After that, you should transition to illusionary and imaginary targets, before finally decoupling 'anchoring' entirely and simple willing the Glyph to go where you want. Don't forget to practice rotation."

I throw the ice ball gently. No Glyph pops up. "It's all in your head. Change your thinking, change your capabilities."

"Not too hard then." Weiss boasts.

"Which is exactly what is bothering me. Why is this so easy for all of you?" Blake and Pyrrha clash mid air for a moment before they fall.

"Well, you are thinking of it as a new Semblance, or an evolution, right?" I nod to Weiss. "It's not. There are all just little tricks in how to use them. All in our heads." I can alter my mindstate fairly easily, 'perks' of being a machine, a simulation. But they shouldn't be able to, right? "Once we get it, it's easy to do it again."

"But you're all picking it up way too fast. I was expecting weeks, a couple of months, before the first sign of progress."

Winter tries to put into words what is bothering me. "They are not new Semblances. We are also very driven." Oooohhhh...

I'm an idiot. I'm not teaching them to use entirely new muscles, just how to use their existing ones in new ways. As for drive... "Beacon. The OT. Loss." The words come out particularly hollow.

Winter's scream of her sister's name echoes though my head and I quickly, too quickly, look away from her. The corpse notices. "Was it... bad?"

"You just fell." I look to Winter. "Your reaction is what made it-" 'WEEIISSSSS!' "meaningful. Just a little fall. Into a hole in reality. No body, vanished into a cloud of particles."

Never to return. 'Do Not Fall.'

Her hand lands on my shoulder as I stare at the girl who fell. "We are here."

There's that felling again. Do all people here feel like this? Like they could just walk up and open the door? Am I only noticing it because I've never had a soul before? Sensitive to an entirely new sense?

"It's just a show." I shrug her off and slip a little deeper, no need to see how bad I am. "Do Not Fall."

"I won't." She vows.

Promises.

I walk back to Qrow and sit down, taking my hand. "Qrow, are there any stories of soul's talking to eachother? Other than the oldest idiot."

"A few, most are probably him though." Ace of spades, two jacks of hearts and clubs, a four of diamonds and an eight of diamonds. What even are we playing? "Are you hearing voices?"

"No more than usual." Multi stream internal monologue and analysis. Multithreading and subconscious optimisation. How deep does my insanity go? "No, I'm... Feeling something whenever I touch someone. Yang, Weiss, I think Ruby when she hugged me but I was a bit shocked to notice at the time."

Not my logging subsystem though. Just like Pyrrha helping with Cinder. I can even remember the exact moment she realises she was outmatched, between Pyrrha, Ozma and a partial Maiden.

I shouldn't have let her go. What was it I said? 'I'll anvil, you hammer'? Some anvil I was.

"Been touching my girls?" Teasing, warning, but ultimately it's a jab to disrupt my thought pattern, to get be out of my frown. I've been frowning a lot.

I hold out my hand. "Skip. I'm not going to bother with all the noise and denials, you know what I mean. Hold."

"Worth a shot." He puts his hand on mine. There it is. "Feeling it?"

"Yeah. What do you feel? I'm half convinced it's a side effect of waking up or an entirely new sense you natives have learned to ignore because it's been there you're whole life."

"Fine. You're hands are a bit cold, but nothing odd. What does it feel like?"

"I've been thinking of it as a door, but it's not one. It's the idea of a gateway or port, an entrance."

"Sound's like a Semblance." What. "Well, think about it, you didn't exactly have the most... uh, normal birth." Okay, I crack a grin at that.

"True, but I have Growth." I point at Amber's face. My face.

"Amber had Growth. We still don't know anything about how Semblances work, like the specialist over there." There is a tad hostility at Winter, when are they going to fuck already, but I see his point. We haven't let go, that open path is still there. I drop my hand.

"Genetic Semblances? Randomised mostly..." I'm thinking aloud. "But there are stories of similar semblances running through families. I am operating on the assumption of formation of fundamental psychological basis." He blinks. "'My dad has sonic blasts, so sound is cool, I got echolocation.'"

"Right, nurture versus nature. How do you explain the Schnee's then?"

"One, I'm not convinced they are the same Semblance, and two, Dust. How likely is it that a major Dust company forms around a family that has a Semblance that can make incredibly effective use of it. That, and their 'family dynamics'. Forced to fit in a mold. It might be genetic too, but I'm betting on a combination of factors."

"You want to try it?" What? "You said it's a door, right? So walk through it."

That sends a shiver up my spine. If my theory on soul containment limits is right, 'walking through it' might mean taking over his body, ejecting his soul. "Might kill you."

"Does it feel hostile?" He holds out his hand again and I put mine on his.

No. It doesn't. "No."

"Also, I think you're underestimating how tough I am."

"Oh, and I suppose you have been attacked on the soul level before?" Oh shit. "You have."

"Bitch a few years ago. Ripped into me and pulled up all my worse..." He shakes. "I can handle it, and it's your Semblance. If anything goes wrong, you can pull out."

I frown again. "And how long did it take Ruby to learn how to not faceplant into every wall she saw?"

Semblances might be instinctual, but that doesn't mean they are controllable. I blink. I'm looking at Qrow Branwen, the poster boy of 'I can't control my Semblance'.

We don't speak, just stare. A second, then two, then three. "We need every edge we can get." Qrow... Bastard.

I sigh. Bastard is right. "Logic, my one weakness."

"Oh? Just one? I'll be sure to put that in my report incase you ever get mind controlled." He frowns. "Jax, right?"

"Jack and Jill went up a hill to fetch a pail of water. Jack fell down and broke his crown and Jill came tumbling after." Take a breathe. "It's a nursery rhyme. The Writers took allusions for all the important characters."

"So you can pick out someone important from a crowd? Useful. You're distracting though."

"You started it." I wave Winter over. "How goes... Oh, Of course." She has it already. Far too fast. Not well, but it's working. "Right, well you and Weiss might as well start flying on Glyphs."

"Downright determined to give everyone a set of wings. I'm starting to get jealous." Qrow snarks. "We're going to try test Yuki's Semblance."

She understands immediately. Untested magical powers, who knows what might go wrong. "Do you have any idea what to expect?"

"Some kind of soul interaction, I think. As a guess." I shrug. "Sorry."

"My Aura is..." I wave Jaune over as Winter begins to point out how this is kind of bad timing.

"Hey, got enough for one more top up?" I gesture to Winter before looking at her to get her permission.

"Some, what's happening?" He checks it's okay with her before pumping in some. His Aura does not break, but it does flicker. At the red then, so about 15%. Enough to preform emergency medical treatment if the worse happens, though with Winter here and the medical room attached to every arena in Beacon, not to mention every single one of everyone here having first aid.

Well, not everyone. Jaune might not, and I certainly don't. I pull out my scroll and add it to the list of stuff to learn. Winter blinks at the sensation of Jaune restoring some of her Aura. "Interesting. Yuki is going to try test her Semblance."

Jaune looks a little down at that, he only 'discovered' his a couple of days ago. None of that. "Jaune, you had yours since at least when Cardin hit you with his mace during the tree sap incident. Maybe earlier. You just needed to work out what it was."

"Right." He nods, a bit too unconvincingly for me. I'm going to have to talk to him. None of this 'I'm useless and behind' nonsense. The story of the 'First Huntress' should do the trick.

I look to Qrow. "If you die, from this, I will find a way to bring you back."

I am not joking or lying or trying to calm him. Ozma died, and then came back. Like hell I'm letting something like Death exist. One impossible thing at a time, 'Yuki'. Salem first.

"I'll try not do die." Does he think I'm joking? Doesn't matter. "Ready."

"Here we go." I concentrate on the feeling of the entrance and try to-

A white room. A familiar white room. Infinite and empty, this is a soulscape.

It only lasts a moment.

The world is back before me, except I'm in a different position.

Amber is sitting before me. Then she collapses. "Yuki!" My mouth calls out. Jaune is behind Amber a moment later, holding her up. She's dead.

Oh. OHHH! Of course. Realisation clicks into place. Duh, how could it be anything but?

I would smirk if I had lips. Let's see here.

{I know what would break Ice Queen's 'pretty perfect posture'. A kiss.}

My body, Qrow's body, goes stiff suddenly.

{I am your concise and manifestation of all your suppressed desires. Now, go kiss Winter.} I deadpan hard enough to knock him out of his shock.

He starts coughing. Jaune and Winter turns to look at Qrow, the other's are coming after hearing my name called out in panic.

{Kiss her. Don't you want to see her fall over in shock? Irondick's little soldier cough and splutter, oh, and she would get angry. Doesn't she look sexy when she's angry? I know you want to.}

"Stop. I'm not kissing Winter." He suddenly realises what he just said.

"Yuki?" Pyrrha is the first to understand properly what is happening.

{Quickly! Then blame it on me! Would she even stay standing?}

Qrow's laughter tells everyone that everything is fine. "Uncle Qrow?"

Or that Qrow has gone insane. "She's here." He taps his head. Our head? No, his head. I'm just rooming with him, he owns the flat. "And she's being a brat."

I put on a 'spooky ghost voice'. {This is ghost of chick's bedded past!~ Kiss the Ice Queen!~ Aren't you curious if her lips are as cold as her glare?~}

He hits the side of his head. Ow. "Shut it."

"I would rather kiss a Grimm than you, Qrow." And Winter is glaring at Qrow, everything is right in the world.

{Noooo, we lost the advantage! You're a useless flatmate.}

"Don't like, move out." He counters. Fine.

{Fine, but first, can you try to talk to me? In here, that is.}

{What, like read my mind?} Qrow sends back.

{I heard that, but no, I can't read your mind, otherwise my head would be full of thoughts of how unfortunate it would be if Winter's skirt brok-}

"Enough of that! If you like her so, much, you kiss her!" He grabs Amber's hand.

I jump across. Now that I know what to expect, it's far easier. "Yuki?"

"Wha- No it's Qrow. Oh, so this is what a chic-" Winter slaps me. "Ow."

"Don't believe her, she's lying." Qrow shoots back. He gets a slap too. "What? What did I do?"

I crack up laughing. We can debate the morality of what my Semblance can do later, right now it's time to wind Qrow and Winter up.

A few more tests and now it's the boring but important bit. Yes. Yes. I nod my head as I am drilled the moral lessons on using my Semblance for the 7th time. I get it.

I recite the laws laid down by everyone here for the 7th time, again. No hijacking people without their explicit permission, no taking over their body without explicit permission. No using people's Semblances without explicit permission.

Transference.

My Semblance. Because of course modelling myself and my 'dream' after Tenno would have repercussions. I even took the name, and said that is what I wanted to be to Qrow.

So, I can jump bodies and control them, possess them, use their skills and Semblances, all the 'good stuff'.

Except people aren't Warframes. Something I have already devised a method of solving, of sorts.

On our way out, I stop Qrow alone. "I do have one question though."

A half cheeky grin pops up on my face as I ask. Considering who I am asking, this shouldn't be much of a problem.

I violate one of the rules I just got set and jump across from Qrow to Ozma.

{Room for one more?} I start cheekily.

{Oh dear. Yuki?} Ozma returns instantly.

{Now act like you are in pain or something, I could only arrange this meeting because I'm 'pranking you'. This is probably the only safe place to talk right now.}

Ozma stumbles into his seat holding his head. {You're Semblance I presume?} {This might be how we win.} Two of them, interesting.

{Exactly. I don't want the others to know, but Plan T is me jumping into Salem and fighting her for as long as I can.} Suicide basically. {The others, if they really care for me, won't even allow me to think it.}

"Out! Get out!" Ozma yells in his office. I understand.

Qrow has a cruel grin, as does Raven and even Tai. Our audience. I take over his mouth. "What if I say... No. You did this to everyone you-" {Ozma, I don't hate you. I think you're an idiot, unsuited for the role you have been cast, but I don't hate you. Just a simple Knight trying to play King.}

I take full control from him and stand up, striking a playful pose. "Oh, I am the great and powerful Oz, look at me," My tone drops harsh and cold. "wearing children as fleshsuits. Ripping apart souls and destroying countless families. How many, Oz?" {I don't mean any of this, I know you feel guilt over it. It's not your fault.}

{It doesn't make it right.} {I wish I never came back.} Ozma and Ozpin speak, though there isn't any difference between the two. Just an internal duologue, it seems.

I hold up 'my' hand and turn it over. "How long did this one last, hm? Youngest headmaster of Beacon, did you give him a choice or were you desperate, pleading?" {That said. Thought. Whatever. This will be the last generation, Ozma. After she is gone, I'll give you one last lifetime or find a way to give you empty bodies. You do deserve to rest, if you want it.}

{Yes.} {I'm so tired.} "Get out!" Ozma yells at his hand as I release control over him.

{Don't tell the other's about Plan T. I don't want to use it, but I will.} I swear.

That is what it means to be ruthless. To know and feel the pain and doubt, the moral conflict and wrongness of the action. And to do it anyway.

{Now, I need practice fighting mental battles. Prepare yourself, and fight back as hard as you can.}

We fight, in a way unlike fighting. His guilt and failings become my weapons, as his sheer volume and experience become his. Semblance struggles against magic, back and forth, control breaking and regaining. So, this is what Oscar had to go through, just to get one word out.

Despite the hostility, we talk. Mostly it's me beating his stupidity into him, but we still talk. And I improve. Get stronger, learn the art of mental combat from someone who has terrible experience in it. How many lives has he snuffed out, souls broken and suppressed, before he learned how to live with them rather that over them.

Finally I release control.

"Get out!" Ozma screams, finally back in full control. {Thank you.}

{Last resort, and I doubt I can last for long. But if the worst comes to worst, I can buy everyone some time. Don't let my sacrifice go to waste, Ozma. Never Give Up.} Ozma grabs Amber's comatose body and yells at it. "Get out!"

{I won't.} I jerk to life again wearing Amber. "All of you, get out!" Ozma yells, 'enraged' at having his mind violated. Just like how he did to countless many.

But I didn't, not really. Kindness and forgiveness. He's done so much better than Salem, chose so much better than the omnicidal path she took. To do the best with what you have, even at terrible cost.

Qrow pulls me back into the elevator after our 'meeting'. Ozma slumps at his desk, panting and holding his head as the doors close. He is shaking.

It's not fake.

I really did hurt him, really did cut into every insecurity and failing he made. Emphasised just how stupid he was being. I pulled every lesson from his past that I could and threw them back at him.

Even so, I didn't try to break him. I do understand the horrible position he has been put in. The best choice out of bad choices is still the best choice, even as it kills many.

Raven is looking at me with... I can't read that expression. "You didn't go easy on him."

Ah. That's what it's about. My kindness and support during the meetings, how I defended him before. "We still need him. Death and pain is an old friend to him, so nothing I could have done would have hurt him. As in really hurt him."

Her face shifts as she grins savagely. "You can now."

"There are fates far worse than death." I intone the absolute truth.

"Bastard." Qrow reaches for his hipflask and takes a drink. "Thanks." I sniff, good. The flask is water now.

"No problem. Oh, if he steps out of line, just say my name. We had an... Interesting mental discussion." There are dark chuckles at my euphemism. "He's next, after her." I promise them.

"Good." Tai leans back on the elevator's wall. "Did you know her, too?" From the show.

"No." I shake, still trying to clear my head of the training damages. "But I know Ruby. I know Yang. I know Qrow. And to a degree I know Raven."

I know how you have been hurt by the loss of her.

One more thing before I have my breakdown and assess what the hell is wrong with me. Why I'm feeling and behaving in an alarmingly inconsistent manner. It will take a while for him to get here.

Tomorrow I go up on stage and proclaim myself the hero of vale or whatever. Tomorrow Weiss and Blake decry the Red Fang and announce their missions. Tomorrow I go to Mistral then Menagerie. Tomorrow James pulls his battleship out of Vale, the immediate crisis resolved and the icon of betrayal doing more harm than good.

Tomorrow everything changes.

I'm no hero.

Knocks bang on the door of my dorm, pushing me out of my thoughts. A whole dorm to myself? Oh wow gee!

Not. I'll be leaving in a couple of days at most. "Come in." It's Jaune. "Sit down in my office, Jaune."

But Jaune is.

I gesture at the bed across from mine, a chair is pulled up too if he wants to use that. He takes the chair. "You said you wanted to talk to me?"

Oh, he's tense. "Jaune. I'm not a teacher or anything, I was making a joke." I shake. "Sorry, I'm pretty tired."

There we go, he relaxes a bit. "Yeah." He's tired too.

"I can't make this organic, I'm too tired to simulate the complexities of social interaction at that level right now." I am very tired full stop, the past two days are hitting me harder now that the half dazed dream state has worn off. "So, I want to tell you a story and give you three words." He almost reaches for his scroll. "Not one of those stories."

"Oh! Okay. I was a bit..." Still tense. "Right. Um."

"Jaune. Relax, really." I shake. "Why do you want to be a Huntsman?"

He looks at me. "You know why." I do, but...

"I'm trying to make this a bit easier." Oh, there it is. The doubt. Make things easier, as in soften the blow. He expects me to say that I don't think he's Huntsman material.

"My grandfather, my father, my great grandfather, they're heroes. I've looked up to them for the longest time." His fist curls. "I want to be one too."

Perfect. I smile and speak softly. "Jaune. You are a hero." He doesn't believe me. "This story is called, The First Huntsman. Or Huntress." I smirk a little before dropping down again.

The First Huntsman

Before weapons, before Dust, before Aura and training, there was humanity and there was the Grimm.

Humanity, defenceless, ran whenever they could. What villages they made lasted not in years, but in months and weeks, more tents and wrappings than houses. Always they ran, and always they were hunted.

One day, a day like any other of that time, a boy ran out from the woods screaming. 'Grimm! Grimm are coming!'

The villagers sprung into desperate action, for the boy did not leave alone, nor would he be screaming like he would were his warning was not true.

But, the Grimm, fast and hungry, were too close.

Belongings abandoned, the people ran. So much so, that a small girl tripped as she tried to follow her mother.

'Run past her, leave her behind. The Grimm will kill her and give me time to escape!' Thought the boy.

Closer he ran, almost passing her, before another thought occurred. He did not leave the village alone. His father had left with him and when the Grimm found them, he had left his father to die.

Some say it was guilt. Other's bravery. The cynical say it was stupidity.

But I know it was something else. He did not run past her. He stopped, he helped the girl up, and pushed her forwards with a word. 'Run.'

Then he turned to face the Grimm.

If her death could give him the seconds needed to live, then he could give her the same. For the first time in human history, known or unknown, someone turned to face the Grimm.

Not some great warrior with powerful weapons, not with the powers of Dust and Aura, not even with the skill of spear like his father had. Nothing but this choice.

The boy became a Hero.

And then he died. Just as he knew he would.

But...

The little girl survived.

Because being a Hero isn't about skill or power, not about Lien or fancy weapons.

Being a Hero is a choice.

I wait, let that soak for a moment, before hitting Jaune with the lesson.

"A choice you have made, again and again. The day you ran away, abandoning your life at the mere idea of helping someone else. The day you came back after you were launched off a cliff, even knowing the danger. The day bully held faked transcripts over you, yet you stayed. The day monsters attacked your school, and you picked up your weapon and stepped forward."

"Every time you step up, you are a Hero." I lean close and poke him in the chest. "You are a Hero, Jaune Arc. Do not, ever, let anyone tell you otherwise. Especially yourself."

The barest hint of steel in his voice as he asks his question. "Is that story true?"

I shrug. "The details are lost. In my version, it is a mother protecting her child. In yours, when you tell it, it might be an old man running away."

No it's not. Yet there is something. "But! One thing remains absolutely true. Somewhere, somewhen, someone decided to fight back. To know that they would die, but that it would be okay. Because someone else survives."

He nods. The steel in him is warm, now to shape it.

"Now. I want you to imagine the same story, but this time, the boy picks up a stick. He lives, just a little longer, distracts the Grimm just a little more, so much so that that one more person runs away, That Just One More survives the day."

"Again. This time, the boy is a little more skillful, he manages to kill a Grimm, and Just One More is saved before he dies. Again, a bit of luck in a stone thrown, it knocks away a claw from taking a live. Just One More. Again. Now he is a hunter of the village, someone who looks for animals to feed them. He turns his skills on the Grimm, and Just One More lives."

"When you feel like, 'oh, I could do one more pushup, but I'm a bit tired, I think I'll take a nap.' I want you to say those three words."

"Just One More." Jaune intones.

"When you doubt that you aren't good enough, that you aren't a Hero, I want you to make the choice. I want you to imagine a little girl, knees bleeding and monsters coming. I want you to stand up and say three words."

"Just One More." A little more steel

"One? Two? How long till your preparation and training fails? The almost-mother pregnant, too slow to run?"

"Just One More." There we go.

"You are a Hero, Jaune. The only question is, how many lives will you save?

"Just One More." It settles in him. Three words, a mantra to push him beyond. Confidence unbreakable, not a question of 'Am I good enough?' but 'How many more?'.

I smile and stand up, put my hand on his shoulder as he stands with me. "Until one day, that boy is so skilled or lucky that the Village doesn't have to run, that he saved all of them, including himself."

Reiterate, I don't want him sacrificing himself. "Including yourself." I wink and grin. "Don't forget that One."

"You really called me in here for a pep talk." He grins back.

"You think your not a Hero, Jaune? You're wrong. There is literally no doubt in my mind that you are a Hero, as occasionally clumsy or romantically oblivious you can be." He turns his head in embarrassment. "So train, get stronger, take time off to recover physically and emotionally. Care and stand by your team. But never, No. Matter. What. do you doubt that. Got it?"

He nods. This Jaune didn't get pushed away from Pyrrha for being weak, didn't destroy himself in guilt as he spent every night awake pushing himself. This Jaune doesn't have that self destroying drive to improve, to never let his friends down again.

So I gave him another drive. Or, more specifically, I sharpened his existing drive. Jaune will not fall behind.

I send him off and catch Pyrrha listening at the door as it opens. She tries to pretend she wasn't, and I think she wants talk. I wave her in. Might as well, even if I am distracting myself from my impending assessment.

A few steps and she sits down.

Not a simple 'thanks' then. "I'm sorry."

"You need to stop apologising, you know." I mutter as Jaune closes the door and waits for his partner.

She smiles, almost a teasing one. "I'm sorry." Oh, she is teasing then. I scoff lightly and relax a bit. "But I am sorry. For..." Her hands come up and cover her heart, gripped together. "Giving you my destiny. My burden."

"Pyrrha, it was never yours. You died." Her voice echoes though my head, almost defiant. 'Do you believe in destiny?' Strange how the meaning and tone changes with each remembering. Sometimes it's sad, resigned. Sometimes it mocking. Sometimes it's a trap waiting to be sprung. I don't remember what the original was.

"Is that why you can't look at us?" I control my flinch. "When you're tired, or when we catch you off guard, you look away."

I do? Yeah. I do. Another thing I have been ignoring, another problem for me to sort out. "It's that bad?" I ask.

"No, just in the rare moments." She holds out her hand for me to take. "I'm here."

"It's just a show." I lie again. And now my eyes are getting wet. "I didn't know you, you were gone so... soon." I don't take her hand. "I don't know any of you."

"Maybe. But you do care. Or you wouldn't be doing what you're doing." Silly girl.

"Designation Hero. Do the steps, say the words, dance this dance. Lie and inspire. I'm fake, Pyrrha." I am fake. Tenno? Ha! I'm a not so normal girl shoved into a very un-normal situation.

"Then maybe you need to hear a story." I look at her, try to, and again I see it. An arrow hit's her heel and she falls to the ground. "It's call The First Huntress."

Take my own advice huh? "I've heard it."

"Then you weren't listening." Her hand is still open, still offering. Kindness? For me? No. I don't deserve kindness.

"Jaune got up, again and again. Put himself between death and innocent. Even Cardin... Do you remember when he killed that Ursa?" She nods. "Skill lacking, shield just a bit off," I know you helped him. "but there he stood. Between someone who hurt him but didn't deserve to die, and death itself."

I lean forward. "I dreamed my way here, and I dream of helping people. But I am untested. Worse, it's not the only thing I dream of." Kill them all. Fight because I love to fight, win no matter what. Make them scream in fear as they back away, stumbling over every step. Exterminate every designated foe.

Ruby, she's looking up at me, like an idiot. The Hero who swooped in on the darkest day and saved everyone! Just like her story books. I've been trying to ignore it, but it's eating at me. Worse, I come with the story of a bad timeline, one where she failed. Nevermind giving her Whoosh, nevermind the Semblance training, she looks at me and sees someone I'm not.

Our scrolls vibrate. Well, Pyrrha's rings, but both of them go off at the same time. A pull out and...

Emergency message talking about Vale's main power is going out across the city in random locations. News stations are uncontrollably broadcasting the Fall's greatest hits. A few explosions can be seen, the sound only arriving from the city as I read the notification.

A recall for all active Huntsmen and Huntresses.

Tomorrow the world changes? No, Cinder won't wait that long.

Pyrrha stands up. I follow her. "Chose to be the Hero you think your not."

"Walk the steps, dance the dance, lie and inspire." I counter. Pretend I'm something I'm not.

The door opens and Jaune is checking his weapon. "We need to go."

My self assessment will have to wait.